This was supposed to be a rebuilding year for Armstrong girls in Minnesota.

The four-time state champions had graduated a huge part of their 2013 team, and with weather playing havoc with their early schedule, Head Coach Jimmy Hanson decided to pull back, not go to the Midwest or NIT tournaments, and concentrate on competing at the state level.

Fourteen players made their first varsity start at the beginning of the season, and Armstrong started with a new slogan - New Year, New Team, Same Dream.

Lo and behold, this group of mostly sophomores and juniors not only competed, they won, yet again, handing a tough Orono team a 61-22 defeat in Sunday’s final.

Orono started well and took and early lead, but Armstrong scored four unanswered tries in the latter part of the first half to take a 33-10 lead at halftime. Orono score right after the break, but again it was Armstrong that finished the stronger. Hanson was not surprised at that. What had surprised him was the overall maturity of his team.

“For the first four years that I was coaching we were very structured and organized,” Hanson explained. “Even if you knew where we were going to go, you still had to stop us and we’d run you over. we’d run you over and force you to stop us. This team is much more organic in how they see space and create and exploit space. They just take what’s in front of them, find the space, hit it, and they go. On game day I don’t really need to do a lot. They run through their warmups, get their jerseys on, and get ready.”

Hanson said he still considers this a rebuilding year, but now he looks at 205 with the knowledge that Armstrong is only graduating four seniors, and will have most of a championship team back and ready to play.

Among them is Renee Gonzalez, a 15-year-old fullback who was a try-scoring machine on Sunday.

“She is by far the fastest kid I have ever had,” said Hanson. “You get he in space you are not going to catch her.”

Amy Schroeder and Kirsten Tanner were co-captains and centers who helped set up the likes of Gonzalez. Of Tanner, Hanson said, “I have yet to see her make a mistake. With them in the middle, our backline knows what it’s doing.”

Armstrong may have to battle the snow and the Polar Vortex to get its rugby in, but the team plays … a lot. They go to Las Vegas for the LVI, and find other 7s tournaments to play.

“I think we play more rugby than any team in the state,” said Hanson. “I have a saying I use with the girls - they really want me to explain to them with words, but they need to understand the game more than that - so I said ‘Words are a fish trap. Once you catch the fish, you can forget about the trap.’ So if you understand the concept and know when to apply it, that’s how you learn.”

Orono kept battling and Hanson said their rivals continue to be a team they respect and enjoy playing.

“Whenever you play Orono, you know they are going to show up and give us a game and be physical,” he said

But Armstrong kept playing too, and while they are Minnesota state champs in 204, watch out for next year.